Impact of inspection errors on performance measures of a complete repeat inspection plan

Abstract

In quality assurance of critical multicharacteristic components complete repeat inspection plans have been proposed to guard against inspection errors. The optimal number of repeat inspections is determined using a model for the plan which minimizes the total expected cost, which consists of the cost of false acceptance, cost of false rejection and cost of inspection. In this paper performance measures for such plans are defined and then the statistical and economic impact of inspection errors on these measures is investigated. The impact of the errors is studied by conducting sensitivity analysis on the errors utilizing a computer software which implements an algorithm that determines the optimal parameters of the model of the plan. Then the levels of the errors are varied and the behaviour of the performance measured are observed. Results indicate that the impact of type I and type II errors are significant and have considerable effect on the performance measures of complete repeat inspection plans. Also the errors have practical implications on the design, layout and size of inspection stations.

Notes

*To whom correspondence should be addressed at Systems Engineering Dept., King Fhad University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, 31261, Saudi Arabia.